A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018
Talk with your reader
Learning from comments on your paper
Research and writing
If you receive comments that include words like disorganized, illogical, and unsupported but cannot find what triggered them, make an appointment with your reader to ask. Such words are not descriptions of your paper but descriptions of the reader’s impressions of it. You need to find out what it is in the paper itself that is provoking those impressions. Following these guidelines will help that conversation go well:
✵ ▪ If your reader marked up your spelling, punctuation, and grammar, correct those errors before your meeting to show that you took her comments seriously. You might also jot responses to more substantive comments, so that you can discuss them.
✵ ▪ If your reader is your teacher, don’t complain about your grade. Be clear that you want to understand the comments so that you can do better next time.
✵ ▪ Prioritize: focus on those comments that address the most important issues, like your paper’s argument and organization. It’s tempting to zero in on local concerns that can be quickly corrected, especially if your reader has done a lot of line editing, or to quibble over minor points of disagreement.
✵ ▪ Rehearse your questions so that they’ll seem amiable: not “You say this is disorganized but you don’t say why,” but rather “Can you help me see where I went wrong with my organization so I can do better next time?”
✵ ▪ Ask your reader to point to passages that illustrate her judgments and to explain what those passages should have looked like. Don’t ask “What didn’t you like?” but rather “Where exactly did I go wrong and what could I have done to fix it?”
A final word for students: you might think that meeting with your teacher is helpful only when a paper or yours receives a low grade. But that would be wrong. Even after a high grade, it’s useful to know how you earned it. Your next project will likely be more challenging, so it’s good to know what successful practices you can build on. Of course, in that new project you might again feel like a beginner. That’s the way it goes with research.